by
Arnold Plotnick MS, DVM, ACVIM, ABVP

It happened 26 years ago, but my memory of the incident
remains vivid.

With my sights were set on becoming a veterinarian,
I was working as a volunteer at a local
veterinarian’s office in Gainesville, Florida, to
obtain that all-important “real life” experience. It
was a weekday, and the first appointment of the
afternoon was a woman who was bringing in her cat,
Sarah, for a physical examination. “She has no
interest in food, no interest in people; she just
sits next to the couch and doesn’t move”, said the
owner, a woman in her 50s. This subdued behavior had
been going on for four days. The doctor asked the
woman about the days preceding Sarah’s lethargy and
loss of appetite, and whether anything in the cat’s
environment had changed. In a soft, forlorn voice,
the woman proceeded to tell the veterinarian that
Sarah had a littermate – a sister – and that they
were inseparable. Both cats had access to a small
backyard through a kitty door, and would often hang
out in the yard together. Four days prior, the
sister was in the yard by herself when a
neighborhood dog managed to get into the yard, chase
down the sister, and attack and kill her. Sarah was
inside the house at the time, looking into the yard
from the window. She witnessed the entire incident.
“From that point on”, said the woman, “she’s been
like this”, pointing to Sarah. I looked over at the
cat, huddled on the exam table, disinterested in her
surroundings, inconsolable. The veterinarian
examined her from head to tail. A “use caution”
sticker on Sarah’s record indicated that she was
known to be feisty during veterinary exams. But not
that day. She put up no fuss as the doctor poked and
prodded. The doctor pronounced the cat healthy, and
told the client that in his professional opinion,
Sarah was clearly grieving for her sister. “I
wouldn’t have thought cats were capable of
mourning”, said her owner, “but I see it now with my
own eyes. I’ve never seen anything so sad in my
life.”

Grief
occurs as a result of the abrupt or unexpected
severing of attachment. Although cats are thought of
as being aloof and solitary, they are, in fact,
social animals, and are as capable as dogs of
forming deep attachments to people and other
animals. It stands to reason that a severing of that
attachment would lead to grieving. As a
veterinarian
and
advice columnist, I am often asked whether I
think cats grieve or mourn the loss of a feline
companion. I certainly feel that they do, but cats
cannot speak, and we can only guess at what their
true emotions might be at any given time.

“Culturally, we try to deny human-like behaviors in
animals,” says
Alan Beck, Professor and Director of the
Center for the Human-Animal Bond at Purdue
University’s School of Veterinary Medicine.
“People used to believe that animals didn’t feel
pain”, says Beck. “We know, of course, that this
isn’t true. Then, they used to question whether
animals could think. Clearly, they can.” Beck adds,
“I suppose that denying animal’s human-like
behaviors allows us to be more comfortable eating
them and using them.” But attitudes toward animals
have changed over the years. While he believes that
cats probably don’t perceive death the same way as
people do, for pet cats experiencing a drastic
change in their environment, it seems reasonable to
think that they do grieve. “We can’t be certain if
they mourn in the human sense of the word, but we
should give them the benefit of the doubt”, says
Beck. “If something would cause stress in a human,
we should assume it would cause stress in animals.”

There are clear differences between human and feline
grieving. Humans can show grief for distant
relatives or for public figures. Cats lack the
abstraction that allows people to grieve for those
they’ve never met; cats only grieve for familiar and
close companions. Cats do not demonstrate the same
ritualized ways of dealing with their grief as
humans do, but they do exhibit their own signs of
mourning. In 1996, The American Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals conducted the
Companion Animal Mourning Project. The study found
that 46% of cats ate less than usual after the death
of a companion cat. Around 70% showed a change in
vocalization pattern (they meowed significantly more
often, or significantly less, than normal). More
than half of the cats became more affectionate and
“clingy” with their owners, and many of the cats
slept more, and changed the location of where they
usually slept. Overall, 65% of cats exhibited four
or more behavior changes after losing a pet
companion.

Alison Fraser needs no convincing. When not
singing or dancing on Broadway, the Tony-nominated
performer could usually be found doting on her cats,
Iggy and Pete. This past August, however, tragedy
struck when Iggy, who had been coping well with his
heart disease (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy),
suffered an embolus and became acutely paralyzed in
his rear legs. He died soon afterward. “Pete mourned
for days”, says Alison. This wasn’t the first time
Pete had shown mourning behavior. When Alison’s
husband Rusty became ill, Pete got very stressed and
began to overgroom, barbering his tail nearly to the
point of baldness. When Rusty passed away, Pete
mourned for weeks. Not long afterward, Pete’s other
feline companion, Valentine, died of chronic renal
failure, and once again, Pete grieved for weeks,
moping, hiding, and overgrooming. Alison adopted
Iggy as a companion for the sullen Pete.
Fortunately, Iggy and Pete clicked right away, with
Pete acting as Iggy’s protector. “Iggy died so
suddenly”, says Alison, “that Pete never got to say
a proper goodbye.” Until Alison came home with
Iggy’s ashes. “When I brought the ashes home, I
placed the urn in the middle of the living room
floor. Pete went over to the urn, laid his chin on
it, and kept it there for an hour. I believe this
was Pete’s way of saying his final goodbye.”

The question often arises as to whether it is a good
idea to allow surviving cats to see the body of the
deceased cat. “Whether this is helpful or not is the
subject of debate”, says
Dr. Nicholas Dodman, board certified veterinary
behaviorist at the Cummings School of Veterinary
Medicine at Tufts University, and author of
The Cat Who Cried for Help, “and there is little
evidence to support either view.” Some researchers
believe that a cat perceives death the way a young child
might perceive it, i.e. they lack the concept of death
being a permanent state. If that’s true, then showing
them the body “would be like letting a 2 year-old see a
deceased family member at a funeral. The consequences
just don’t register”, says Dr. Dodman. On the other
hand, if dogs and cats do comprehend death more than we
give them credit for, viewing a deceased companion may
help to explain why that companion cat won’t be around
in the future. Anecdotally, people have reported that
some cats stop searching for an absent companion after
being shown the body of a deceased companion. This may
indicate that cats have at least some comprehension that
something dead cannot come alive again. This may be
linked to the fact that they are predators. “The weight
of opinion today is that a ‘viewing’ is not likely to
help a pet understand the death of a companion”, says
Dodman. “But”, he adds, “I think we should give our pets
the benefit of the doubt and allow them to, if we feel
it might help. After all, if the human experience is
anything to go by, it may help some come to terms with
what has transpired.”

Life abruptly becomes very different for the surviving
cat, and it will require extra attention, compassion,
and reassurance during this period. If the surviving cat
had access to the outdoors, this should be restricted,
as the cat may stray off into unfamiliar territory and
get into dangerous situations as it searches for the
lost companion. Time heals all wounds, and if the cat is
showing other signs of depression (poor appetite, change
in sleeping pattern, excessive vocalization,
overgrooming, pacing, searching), these often dissipate
after a few weeks, although it can take as long as six
months. “Enriching the environment, by offering new
toys, treats, etc. is helpful and recommended”, says Dr.
Dodman, as this may help reduce a clingy cat’s sudden
over-attachment, and may draw the cat out of its shell.
In a multi-cat household, the surviving cats will
eventually work out the new social order. Whether
getting a replacement cat right away is a good idea is
debatable. Pete found Iggy to be a welcome distraction,
but this is usually the exception rather than the rule.
A cat in the throes of grief may not be able to handle
the additional stress of a new feline intruder. “In some
instances, severely affected cats may require
anti-anxiety or anti-depressant medication”, warns
Dodman. As with humans, cats need time to process the
loss.

Cats are resilient animals. If given time to grieve,
they will return to some of their old rituals, develop
new rituals, and once again regain the contentment that
they previously enjoyed.